Netdahe
by Jncera
Summary: The greatest fear is the one propelled by the images in your mind. But then again, sometimes the greatest fear is really just the strange unknown. Artemis and Wally are spending the night in a hotel next to a secluded forest when things start feeling… just a bit.. eerie. Oneshot.


**A/N:** This is based off a real place called Kohl's Ranch in Payson, AZ. My boyfriend and I stayed there in May, and I could not get over my gripping fear when we went down to the river at night. And that's what spawned this story. Happy reading!

_Disclaimer: I do not own Young Justice._

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**Netdahe  
**_Apache. "Death to all intruders_"**  
**

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"There! Don't you see a face?"

Wally turns away from the camera's screen and gives his girlfriend an incredulous look. "Babe, those are just leaf shadows," he responds.

Artemis ignores him, and edges closer to the screen. She does see shadows—gaunt cheeks and hidden eyes. She blinks. Or maybe they're just leaves, coincidentally shading the sun into human-like features. She flips to the next photo of Wally smiling into the distance with a conquest stance, and nothing else stares back at her. She sighs and leans back into Wally's arms.

"I'm going crazy," she mutters. Wally chuckles, and clicks to the next photo—a lop-sided self-shot of the two of them.

And then there it is again—another group of dark and light mixing into a satanic stare. Artemis grabs the camera and zooms in.

Her words slow and careful, she asks again, "You really don't think that looks like a face to you?"

Wally follows her gaze and squints. "I still see leaves," he concludes. "But _we_ look silly." He hopes a subject change would bring Artemis away from her agitated state. "What am I even trying to do with my eyebrows?" He laughs and switches to the next continuation of their self-portrait session.

Artemis wants to look away, afraid of what she might see, but can't. That's when she notices the faces only appear when both of them are in the same picture—when both their backs were turned. And the eerie faces themselves—shadowy patches of dark and faded light—seem to grow more and more sinister with each flash of the screen. Elongating eyebrows, longer faces, evil smiles and pointed teeth…

She suddenly stands up and looks everywhere but the camera screen. She's seen a lot of weird and creepy things in her life as a superheroine, including ghosts rising out from their graves, but nothing as bizarre as those images.

Wally eyes her cautiously, but doesn't say anything. A moment of silence passes through them like buzzing bees, before he reaches up and squeezes her shoulder.

"Are you hungry?" he asks. "Because I'm famished!" He then nods at the door. "C'mon, let's go grab some food."

They walk silently through the hotel together, their steps falling unconsciously in step with the slow country song humming through the lobby speakers. A hearty fire is blazing on the stone fireplace, igniting the beady black eyes of the elk head mounted above it. As they pass the fire, a log pops and releases a long warning hiss. At that same moment, the country tune floating around them suddenly coughs and sputters, and the track begins jumping through fogs of static.

The darkness of their drive into town is dark and suffocating. The highway takes them through the winding hillside, and there's nothing but the inky tree-line and an occasional pair of headlights from passing cars and trucks. The local radio spits out alternating measures of a cello solo and white noise, but it's better than just the blurring hum of the road and car engine.

Their own vehicle's headlights can only illuminate a few feet in front of them, and images of bloody figures with cavernous mouths frozen in locked screams being suddenly lit up dance through Artemis's mind, and she oscillates between morbid fascination and raw terror. Suddenly abandoned rags by the side of the road look like torn and dirtied strips of flesh, fallen branches pushed aside become waxen femurs and spines, and bushes turn into matted knots of hair.

She turns away from the front windshield, and her breath sticks at how encompassing the darkness is. The rear and side windows appear replaced with panes of jet black obsidian. She never used to be afraid of the night—in fact she relished the stealth and stillness—but twilight in the city is much friendlier than the pure ebony of a forest night. She quickly faces the front again and gazes at the rising full moon instead, welcoming the dusty orange glow.

Wally continuously steals quick glances at her, and finally reaches over and takes her hand. "Don't worry Babe; I'm sure the dark is more afraid of you," he teases.

This makes Artemis crack a grin despite the rolls of uneasiness in her stomach. She tightens her grip on his hand, and their hands remain locked until they arrive at a restaurant in town.

"How about that hike today, huh?" Wally asks once they're seated at their table.

Artemis doesn't take her lips away from her straw and nods.

"It's my favorite because it's secluded," he continues. "I feel like I'm in another world, like, see ya later civilization, hello beautiful Mother Nature and all your awesome wonders!"

Just then their server walks up to their table. As he takes their orders, Artemis notices vacant air taking place of both his pinky fingers, and none of his remaining fingers have fingernails. When he leaves, she leans towards Wally and whispers to him her peculiar observation. He waves it away.

"I wasn't really paying attention to his fingers," he replies simply. He turns his attention instead to her, and takes both her hands in his. "Are you okay though? You seem… off. Quieter than usual. "

Artemis sighs and shrugs. "I just feel…weird. Odd. Yeah, off."

"Well, how about when we get back to the hotel, we have more of your wine, and maybe take the flashlight that comes with the room and go talk a moonlit stroll? We can make it super cheesy and romantic and all that stuff." He grins at her, and squeezes her hands.

Artemis convinces herself to return the smile, and nods. "Yeah." She inhales. "Okay, let's do that."

When their server returns with their food, she keeps her gaze focused on the tablecloth's pattern.

Artemis closes her eyes for the entire ride back to the secluded hotel, but the noise from the radio still fills her ears. As they drive further and further from the town, the music grows softer and the static grows louder. And then what first sounded like crumpling paper begins to intertwine with airy waves of different pitches. To her hypersensitive ears, they sound like hushed and hurried whispers.

Wally finally mutters in frustration and changes the radio frequency, but is met with more white noise. He continues to scan through the channels with no success.

"Nothing, huh?" Artemis murmurs.

"Nothing," Wally echoes with irritation.

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They both lower their empty wine glasses at the same time and smile in the process. The entire world is a warm blanket, and Artemis slides to her feet and grabs Wally's hands. He scoops up the flashlight on the table, and they both waltz out into the velvet-spun cocoon of night through the patio door, laughing and reeling in a carefree state of mind.

Following the dancing halo of light on the ground, the pair skips down the steps of their hotel to the gravel path bordering the property. Grinning up at Wally, Artemis momentarily forgets all her previous qualms about the darkness. She eagerly wraps an arm around his and allows herself to be guided towards the river bank, her thoughts filling with adventure and stars.

But then, her eyes take in the wall of blackness just past the last series of stairs to the river bank, impervious to the comforting hotel lights, and a small quiver jolts through the back of her neck. The closer they walk towards it, the clearer her mind becomes, and the tighter the ominous world around them squeezes in. However, determination pushes her forward, and without even pausing, she descends the first step.

Instantly, she feels a chill rise through her feet and into every follicle of hair. She turns her face slightly to the right, and then to the left, and bites her lip when she can detect no trace of wind. But, she could still… _hear_ it—light rustling of the leaves, and whispers of eerily familiar static…

She suddenly halts on the last step, causing Wally to teeter precariously until gravity stills him.

"Babe?" he inquires.

"Shh," she answers in a hush, "listen…"

Wally frowns, and swings the flashlight back and forth across the landscape. A window of color travels across the darkness, revealing quiet bushes and rocks…the edge of the river below, and lastly, the line of trees on the opposite bank, thickly blending into the night.

As the light slides over sleeping leaves of dark emerald, Artemis's eyes catches onto something strange. Instead of brown and black, the tree bark on a patch of trees resembles the carnal pinkness of human skin. But before she could understand the images, darkness envelops them once more.

"Did you see that?" she whispers, a tinge of uneasiness peppering her words.

"See what?"

"The trees over there." She takes the flashlight from him and points it to the opposite bank. The instant she does so, a strident hiss blows over the foliage near them.

There's a pause as the beam illuminates the patch of forest, and Artemis stares with a quivering hand at the peach-colored bark, some even covered with colorful marks like melting tattoos. The wind comes again, and as their intermittent breezes shifts through the leaves, hurried hisses of crinkling paper echo all around.

"What am I looking for?" Wally's question finally breaks the ghostly noise, and he looks from the trees to his girlfriend with concern.

Artemis holds her breath. She's not sure what scares her more: the strange images and noises, or the possibility they may simply be her own hallucinations, oiled and propelled by stringy vines of fear.

Suddenly her hair whips against her face from a blast of cold, and fingers of silver fog flood the ground like a reaching ocean wave. The flashlight blinks, pops, and dies, and a sense of dread slams into her like the rise of concrete to the fallen. Her eyes flicker upwards to the tree-tops, and she catches the crescent moon shrinking into the jagged blackness of the forest.

"Can we go back," she whispers, a rushed statement more than a question.

Wally looks around, and pulls her closer. "You sure you don't want to look at the stars?" he asks, and activates the stargazing application on his phone. He holds it up to the misty sky and peers intriguingly at the screen.

Artemis immediately drops her hand from his grasp and takes a step backwards. She doesn't recognize the face illuminated by the bluish glow, and when it turns towards her with a puzzled frown, she turns and bolts up the stairs. The second her foot leaves the last step, the fog dissipates. However, the static humming continues to vibrate through the cold air, and she keeps running like a deer from hunters, terror and adrenaline stabbing through her heart and muscles. The closer she is to the warm golden lights, the harsher the cacophonous crackles sting her ears, until she bursts through the doors of the hotel lobby like a winded animal and drops onto the nearest couch in front of the fire.

Except… there is no fire. Silence and chilling darkness fills the hearth, and as her eyes travel around the lobby, more and more things are amiss. The regal elk head posed above the fireplace has been sliced down the forehead, leaving behind black antlers seated over a gaping oval hole. The mounted photographs of cowboys and Native Americans have blurred faces or are missing from their frames entirely.

Artemis cranes her neck over the back of the couch towards the front desk, and is met with emptiness. No one is standing behind the counter with a ready smile; only abandoned cobwebs wave lugubriously back at her. The feeling of icy dread is momentarily replaced with confusion and curiosity, and she leaves the couch to further examine the deserted lobby. Her footsteps against the worn carpet sound like shuffling mice as she walks slowly towards the windows guarding the entrance, and what she sees in the parking lot only further fuels her leaking nausea.

Rows of modern vehicles, including her and Wally's own car, have mysteriously been replaced with random rusting car parts. She could make out an engine there, four prostrate wheels here, an arching brown and orange skeleton… even a decaying carriage with a horse skull hanging by the eye socket on a shaft.

She suddenly feels like she's being watched by strings of invisible eyes, and fresh panic smashes into her. She turns and runs back through the lobby and into the hallway of rooms. The lights flicker with her heartbeat, and the speakers sizzle alive with the sound of wind. With every closed door she passes, her lungs fill with different and strange scents—strange scents: baby powder and leather, burnt flesh and lavender, wood and iron and salt…

She finally arrives at her room and, when she realizes light is glowing through the edges, swiftly shoves open the door. To her surprise, Wally is there, and when he turns around, it's actually him, and not some phantom hallucination. Before he could open his mouth, she collapses into his arms.

"Whoa there," he says as he pulls back and his eyes sweep her with concern. "You look like you just saw a ghost."

"S-something's not right," Artemis replies, not even bothering to calm the quiver in her voice. "A-all the c-cars are gone, and everything is—" she struggles for the right word, her eyes darting everywhere except Wally's face, "—_different_."

Wally frowns, and then gently sits her down at the edge of their bed. "Different?" he repeats.

"Something's not right," she whispers. "I want to go home." She finally looks up at him, and he finally registers her trepidation—her eyes are swimming with apparitions no one can explain. Artemis is a strong girl, but she's not untouched by fear, especially of the paranormal and unexplainable.

He smooths back her hair and lays a kiss on her forehead. "Let me go check on things. Why don't you get ready for bed and I'll come join you in a bit?"

Artemis nods, and watches him pat his pockets for his belongings before walking into the hallway and close the door behind him. The click of the latch is muffled compared to the thudding of her heart. And that was the last time she ever saw him...

She follows his advice and heads toward the bathroom. At first she refuses to look at her reflection in the mirror, but the pull of habit overcomes paranoia, and dark grey eyes finally flash back. She's relieved she recognizes the face, and then almost laughs at her strange thoughts. She reaches her right hand forward for her hairbrush, and so does her reflection. She freezes. Slowly, she raises her hand, and stares at the emptiness where a normal reflection would be. The girl on the other side of the glass isn't mirroring; she's mimicking—raising her own right hand, like another Artemis staring back from beyond a window pane.

She pulls her hand back and slowly turns around. Without even changing out of her clothes, she slides under the covers and draws her knees to her chest. The clock on the nightstand next to her reads 9:16 in a steady red glow. She can't bring herself to close her eyes without having Wally by her side, so she waits…

The sound of splintering glass jolts her awake. Her head whips back and the gripping cramp in her neck consumes her for a few seconds until she massages it away. A blast of cold air reroutes her attention to the sliding glass doors, with its curtains billowing like ball gowns.

Her eyes dart to the clock, and she stares in confusion at the crimson 9:16. She counts to 60 in her head, and when the clock remains unchanged even as the voice in her head says 100, she reaches for her phone. The screen however, remains a glowing grey and unresponsive to her touch. Frustrated, and still in her haze of sleep, she tosses it aside and gets out of bed.

"Wally?" she calls as she straps on her boots and grabs a coat. She walks slowly towards the ballooning drapes. In response, the breeze sucks the curtains into the night, and underneath their dancing cloth, Artemis discovers broken glass scattered all over the wooden beams of the patio floor. They glisten like rainwater from the light of her hotel room, before fading into darkness at the light's edge. Someone—or something—had tried to break _out_.

Artemis quietly turns around and surveys the room. Ignoring the static time on the clock, everything appears peaceful. The front door is closed, the bathroom is quiet, and nothing of value is missing.

Well, expect Wally, she longingly notes.

Not one to be a sitting duck, she grabs her spare crossbow and heads for the front door. She turns the doorknob and is met with a sharp resistance. The handle is jammed, and won't even move. Cursing silently, she turns to her only other exit—back to the place she wants to escape from.

Her boots crunch over the broken glass, sending up little pops. She holds her crossbow at eye-level, letting its built-in flashlight illuminate the dark one small circle at a time. Trepidation digs into her like obstinate claws as she advances down the stairs and onto the gravel path. The full moon dangles high in the sky, watching her every move like some pupil-less ghoul.

At first she doesn't hear it, but the leaves begin to rustle again, and a cello melody floats from the trees, punctuated by haunting static and the low hum of a car engine. She looks around wildly, her heart pounding and her legs desperately wanting to run far, far away.

A blanket of grey suddenly starts drifting down from the sky. Artemis opens her palm to catch the flakes, and it smudges into black between her fingers.

"It's ash, you know, from all the funeral pyres."

Artemis whips around and her flashlight lights up Wally's face. She almost yells in relief, but stops, and the cry of happiness is replaced with a scream in her throat.

The man standing before her isn't Wally. He has his face and hair, but where smiling green orbs should be, there are only empty sockets. And then he smiles, and his skin rips at the bloody stitches all along the edges of his face.

Artemis's arm begins to shake, and the light shivers over the man's sharp teeth.

"What did you do to Wally?" she demands with a glare like burning coals.

The figure simply laughs, and his cackle morphs into the shrill shriek of an elk. Artemis drops her crossbow to cover her ears and it crashes into the ground with a muffled rattle. The call stridently crescendos, and she instinctively turns away. And then suddenly, the silence slices through, and as mysteriously as he came, the man disappears, leaving Artemis alone in the swirling ash.

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The trees beyond the river bank quiver, and two more earthy trunks suddenly shed away their bark to reveal skin. One is dotted with orange freckles, the other tanned and smooth, with a few leaves of blond here and there…

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_**End**_

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A/N: Happy Halloween! Please let me know what you thought by leaving a review :) Thank you for reading!


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